"Oh my God, that's so gay."
Very few phrases annoy me more than that little one right there. Not only do I find it incredibly annoying (every time someone says it, all I hear is the stereotypical blonde valley-girl voice in my head: "Like, oh my God, that is like, so gay!") I also find it incredibly ignorant. I'll admit, I've been guilty of saying this atrocious phrase a time or two as well which may or may not make me something of a hypocrite, but it was never something that just casually slid out of my mouth without my noticing as it does so many people around me. I had to MAKE myself say it (which should have been enough to stop me from saying it in the first place).
When you're trying to say something is stupid, would you ever consider saying "that is so Asian" or "that is so Jewish." Absolutely not, you might offend somebody with that kind of talk! Um...hello?!?! In my opinion it would be easier, less-offensive, and it would sound much more intelligent to say "that is so stupid" or "that is so lame" rather than "that is so gay" or even worse, "that is so homosexual." From now on, every time I hear someone say one of those things, I'm going to try and say "that is so straight" or "that is so heterosexual" and see how long it is before someone notices (or stops).
A friend showed me these ads, and I think they are awesome! Maybe they'll help people see this "casual phrase" from a different perspective.
I think we should change the negative connotation in the phrase into a more positive meaning. I'm in the group Queer Straight Alliance and we brought up the idea to change our name to Gay Straight Alliance. Some people thought the word "Queer" was offensive, but we believed by putting positive influence into the word it would change people's perspectives.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing about the phrase is that it generally isn't used to describe anything that is actually connected to gay culture. In addition to being offensive, it is also generally used in an inaccurate way.
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